Together Again
by roo17
Summary: When Luffy told Ivankov that if Ace died, he would want to die too, he meant it. Now, here he was, awake and bandaged after the horrible battle with a pain in his heart that could never be cured. Character death.


Together Again

**Summary**: When Luffy told Ivankov that if Ace died, he would want to die too, he meant it. Now, here he was, awake and bandaged after the horrible battle with a pain in his heart that could never be cured. Character death.

**Pairing**: None intended, but if you choose too, you could look at it as AceLu.

XxXxX

_Luffy took in deep breathes as he held onto Iva-chan's ankle, his whole body shaking and on the verge of shutting down to rest. "Iva-chan!" Said person stared down in shock to see that Strawhat was awake._

_"Ah! You're still conscious?"_

_"I have… one last request! You have to listen!" As Luffy yelled his request to his friend, the sounds of the war could be heard echoing everywhere, the cries of both pirates and marines falling were a constant ring in everyone's ears. Encouraging and comforting roars could be heard from the survivors, telling Ace to hold on, and that he'd be rescued soon. Iva-chan looked down at Luffy with alarm._

_"Another shot of vigor hormones? Outrageous! You can take no more! After fighting you vay through Impel Down and almost dying from a deadly poison, your body is truly far beyond its limit already!" But Luffy ignored the warning and grabbed onto Iva-chan's shirt, still inhaling deep rasped breathes as he looked up with the most determined look upon his battered face._

_"If I die, then fine. Just… let me fight, Iva-chan! If by not fight now… I have failed to save Ace! That… that would make me want to die!"_

_/-/-/_

Luffy let his tears run down his cheeks as he stared at rock with a rather dazed look, his entire body bandaged up from the battle at Marine Headquarters. His eyes drifted to one of his bandaged hands and could clearly see the ghost blood of his brother on it and looked away; a sick and empty feeling arising in his stomach. He hadn't been able to save Ace, his dear brother and only sibling was still alive. The memory of holding him in his arms as he spoke his last words, breathed his last breath, and died with a smile on his face replayed in his mind over and over again like an old horror film.

"I… I'm weak…" He croaked, his red eyes landing on the dagger that he held in his other hand. "I couldn't… even save my only brother…"

_"You're weak, Luffy. You need to become stronger! So that one day, you can protect all the ones you care for!"_

"You were right Ace, I am weak." His heart ached as he spoke his brothers name and gave a sob, his whole body numb not from the injuries he sustained, but numb from the loss of his dear brother. "Ace..." His heart gave another throb, this one more painful than the last. Luffy raised the dagger into the air and turned the tip towards his heart, stopping to think about everything that he had done in his short life. He thought of Sabo, and Ace, and how he met all of his nakama and old townsfolk. He thought of Dadan and Garp, and even Whitebeard and Iva-chan. His last thought was of when he waved goodbye to Ace as his older brother sailed off into the horizon to become a pirate, how happy he looked to be on the ocean where he could be as free as he wanted to be.

_"By not fighting now, I have failed to save Ace! That… would make me want to die!"_

Luffy held the dagger to his heart, tears still running down his soft cheeks. He gave a sad smile as he stared upward. "I miss you, Ace. I love you." And as he plunged the dagger into his heart and slowly fell to the ground bleeding, he stared up at the beautiful blue and orange sky and saw Ace with his arm outstretched towards him, a calm smile on his face. Luffy lifted up his arm and gladly took Ace's extended hand.

"Now," Ace's soothing voice whispered as he smiled at his brother. "We'll finally be together again, otouto…"

**XxXxX  
****Just a little thing I thought about since I've read one piece. I thought 'Well, Luffy said he'd kill himself if he couldn't save Ace, so why didn't he?' And so I decided to write this short bit. Not much reading, probably not even worth it, but eh, oh well right? Thanks for reading and reviewing! (Oh! And I also finally uploaded a Digimon story on my other account: roo's psycho insane mind. mind if you check it out? maybe you'll like it? I'll be uploading one piece stories on that account too, along with kingdom hearts too ;)**

_The darkness I liveth, the darkness I love  
__~roo the nobody vampire_


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